The Bridge | Bots 'R Us

Chapter 27 | A Singular Love Story

SHANGHAI, SEPTEMBER 113 A.E.

While the love of my life was moving heaven and earth to reunite with me, Sarah's ancient love manifested itself in my borrowed body, awaking intertwined memories and emotions.

I thought we had closed the chapter on Chad long ago when he and Sarah broke up. I honored Sarah's wish to chase him away from our minds, even after he and I signed the Transcendent War's armistice. And yet, there I was, with an attraction for him, deep-seated and so wrong in so many ways. At the top of the list, Chad had suddenly become my first blood-and-flesh lust for someone in centuries! Later, I learned indeed that Sarah and Chad's story had been intense from the moment they'd laid eyes on each other.

They met when Sarah was almost twenty-one, fresh out of a college for the gifted with a prestigious doctorate in neural systems. Chad, another young genius, was four years older and already a director in his dad's company, Wong Industries, Inc. He was leading the internship program for their Research and Development department, on par with the most advanced University labs in the world. Sarah wanted to understand this new, post-Reorg world her parents had helped eschew, and Shanghai, a world-leading center for science and technology, was the very first destination she needed to grasp. Naturally, she postulated for an internship at WILabs in the group specialized in "living systems," which brought us Osmosis, nanomechs, and ultimately, Andros. Intrigued by her extraordinary profile, Chad researched her and fell for Sarah before she even set foot in the lab.

The first time Sarah walked into his lab, she was struck by Chad's charm and piercing gaze accented by an iridescent flock of hair hanging above his right eye. Tall and tan, he exuded sexy confidence. Chad didn't try to compete with his flashy celebrity-businessman father; still, as a fashion-conscious young man, he could have passed for a C-Pop star.

At first, Sarah decided to resist Chad's magnetic influence. After all, they were equals—both Doctors—and she believed that an office romance with the boss would jeopardize his respect for her work. Feminist and fiercely independent, she managed to keep their relationship strictly professional for a few weeks. But Chad had none of those reservations. He was on his turf, and this young recruit was everything he had ever dreamt of in a companion. She was his type, Western and worldly, pretty with sparkling green eyes and freckles, svelte, athletic, brilliant, and tactful without affectation. He found the balance between her youthful grace and her fearless expression mesmerizing. She could measure up with the strong women in his family: his mother Wendy, COO of the company, and his grandmother Mae, a venture capitalist who helped launch many top tech businesses in the Pacific Ring—Wong Industries first among them.

While Sarah worked hard at being the most efficient and prolific intern in the lab, Chad focused on studying her. She was his secret project. He had to know her every like, habit, and reaction to be sure he'd hit a bull's eye on the first try. He needed to arouse her interest further if he wanted her to stay beyond her one-year limited commitment.

Chad researched the West Coast alternative culture of Sarah's family commune, their attachment to the ideals of the Great Reorg, and their skepticism towards the tech world's infatuation with the singularity. Wong Industries was a poster child for the singularist trend and produced a full range of A.I.-powered devices assisting humans in almost every possible task. As advanced as their products could be, they could not compare yet with the nanomech revolution they were foretelling.

At first, Sarah was very amused with Wong's advanced research. Most of his team's efforts at the time focused on artificial service pets based on the concept of trained service dogs. Wong's Service Pets aimed to be more lifelike than any mechanical creature you could find on the market, all the while offering an infinite choice of shapes and behaviors. Pre-trained in the lab, they would learn their masters' needs faster than anyone could train an attentive dog. Even people without any husbandry skills would be able to train their WoSP in a matter of days. Chad imagined how customers would design theirs online and how the company would assemble them from pre-shaped nanomech parts.